Your Own Vatting/Blend

Has anyone created there own vatting or blend of whiskies? How'd it come out?

Last night while chatting on-line, I decided that I wanted to switch from an Islay to a Speyside whisky. Instead of the abrupt change, I vatted the remaining Laphroaig 10 with the Macallan CS 57.8%. The ratio was two parts Macallan to 1 part Laphroaig. I was surprised that it was quite tasty. The extra amount of Macallan allowed the sherry nature to shine through a base of the iodine/seaweed provided by the Laphroaig.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

I really found it quite enjoyable. I think there were two things working in my favor. First, no grain alcohol. Second, only two malts involved. It was kind of like a sherry casked Laphroaig. The sherry cask elements came through quite cleanly as I started with cask strength Macallan. However, the Laphroaig characteristics were a little more muted.

Conclusions: 1. Not as good as either one as a single.2. Beautiful transition from Islay to sherry Speysider. Often I find that the heavily sherried whiskies become a little bitter following some of the non-sherried whiskies. I recently had this experience switching from Glenlivet to Macallan.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Ganga wrote:Has anyone created there own vatting or blend of whiskies? How'd it come out?

Last night while chatting on-line, I decided that I wanted to switch from an Islay to a Speyside whisky. Instead of the abrupt change, I vatted the remaining Laphroaig 10 with the Macallan CS 57.8%. The ratio was two parts Macallan to 1 part Laphroaig. I was surprised that it was quite tasty. The extra amount of Macallan allowed the sherry nature to shine through a base of the iodine/seaweed provided by the Laphroaig.

I've done this before, and I think it's worthwhile. I often try Irish whiskeys (Jameson ones, in particular) with a tiny drop of something like Laphroaig to see what they'd be like peated. I've had mixed results, but usually they've been very interesting.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

I've done it with Irish and Scotch blends (nearly all Irish whiskies are blends) for fun. Some are great. There's a cheap slighly rough Irish whiskey called Dunphy's and that mixed fifty fifty with Teacher's is not at all bad!. I've also mixed Kilbeggan with Power's as the cap of the Kilbeggan bottle wouldn't screw on anymore, and it was fine. Of course single malts are blended in the distillery. With other malt whiskies. How else do they get the taste so consistent?I'm off to Spain today for a week. Whisky is dirt cheap there. The only Irish you can buy in my local supermarket there is Jameson, but not the 12 yr old which is my favourite, but you can get Jura (love that), Cardhu (like that too), The Macallan, Johnny Walker Black label etc. for 20 to 30 euro less than you can here or in Britain.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

I haphazardly created a living bottle awhile back. I'd have a drop or ounce left the morning after and didn't want to throw it out, so I started pouring it into a 200ml bottle just for the fun of it. Various drams, that unfortunately, I didn't keep track of. Once the bottle became full, I started trying it out. Nothing offensive and quite enjoyable for what it was. I know there was some Laphroaig, Talisker, Balvenie, and Glenmorangie among others in there. I guess a few hours oxidation actually worked in favor of the whole project. I just wish I would have been more scientific and kept track of the combinations.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Aberlour fans will probably shudder, and maybe Ardbeg fans too, but I recently took a bottle of a'bunadh, which was full to the lower edge of the front label, and filled the bottle the rest of the way to the top with Ardbeg 10. I guess that's probably 1 part a'bunadh to 3 parts Ardbeg, right? I liked it well enough that the bottle was soon emptied. I'm sure I'll do it again some time in the future.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Bulkington, I tried a similar thing, but the vatting proportions were the opposite of yours! I found the Ardbeg 10,at 46%, was able to make its presence felt to 3 parts Macallan CS(not A'bunadh, but similar...)

Tonight my band was gigging at a favourite haunt. My young girl singer, newish to whisky, but already in love with a'bunadh(which i turned her onto) and Talisker (ditto) did the honours. all they had was glenfiddich, which doesn't particularly impress her. but in my pocket i had a mini Jameson bottle filled with ...Laphroaig 10 CS which I had brought along to drink at a subsequent dinner party!

When her back was turned i poured a little splash, no more, into each of our glasses...

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

I've vatted Mackmyra Swedish Single Malt cask samples a few times. The most recent effort hasn't been tasted yet. The previous one took some time to come around, but when it did, it was great! But it isn't whisky really, as most of these samples are between 1-2 years old only. Just a bit of fun and experimentation is what it amounts to.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

'Frog seems to be popular here. Granted, I've rarely done it, but I've added a bit of the 'frog to some "less than adequate" blends to give them some more depth and taste, and it has eased the drinkability considerably. However, I must admit that I don't like doing this with 'frog 10, and prefer it by itself--it's a giant!

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

hilliamash wrote:'Frog seems to be popular here. Granted, I've rarely done it, but I've added a bit of the 'frog to some "less than adequate" blends to give them some more depth and taste, and it has eased the drinkability considerably. However, I must admit that I don't like doing this with 'frog 10, and prefer it by itself--it's a giant!

Funny that. I picked up a "Black bottle" for £10 last friday. Dangerously drinkable. On my third dram I dropped just a few drops of 'frog into it. Bingo!

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Ahhh, now I have done this as well. It does add to the Black Bottle 10--if I had to make a single change to it, I would ask the Blender to add about 2% more "Frog" to the overall mix--just a bit more peaty and it would be a near perfect blend. Mind you...I agree...it is dangerously drinkable!

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

So I recently took a chance on a bottle of Signatory Strathmill (1992, 13 yo), encouraged on the grounds that it was an uncommon opportunity, and warned that Strathmill isn't for everyone. Well, this bottling had a quality that I can see, in other bottles, resembling "cauliflower," but here it was really quite pungent and resinous and, as much as I resisted the chemical in favor of an organic association, increasingly I couldn't avoid the sense that it smelled and tasted like the chemical you smell passing a salon where hair is being permed. So after some experiments I hit on proportions that resulted in my adding around 100 ml of Longmorn to the bottle when it had around 600 ml remaining and that pungency was removed to a nice organic note in the background of sweet bursts of honeycomb in the fore. Strathmorn.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Ganga wrote:Has anyone created there own vatting or blend of whiskies? How'd it come out?

Last night while chatting on-line, I decided that I wanted to switch from an Islay to a Speyside whisky. Instead of the abrupt change, I vatted the remaining Laphroaig 10 with the Macallan CS 57.8%. The ratio was two parts Macallan to 1 part Laphroaig. I was surprised that it was quite tasty. The extra amount of Macallan allowed the sherry nature to shine through a base of the iodine/seaweed provided by the Laphroaig.

full circle!

and the last malt I got from SMWS was...a sherry casked Laphroaig! And bloody good it is too!!

The only drawback with this is time. If you find a good blend , like the Aberlour / Ardbeg described above(which I have to try!) I suggest putting some aside for a few weeks to let the whiskies marry.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Hmm i've tried a few:Glemo 10 + a little Appleton's XO Rum = rounds off the 10 & makes it a little smoother and sweeter.WT Russells Res + Elijah Craig married in almost empty Laga 16 bottle = surprisingly smooth with a hint of smokiness and fullness from the Laga. The reduction of strength of the WT also makes it a little extra minty.Laphroaig 10 + WT Rare Breed = can't really explain the combination of flavours here but it's different!BNJ + a little Laph 10 = just gives it that bit of an islay salt and bite that it needs.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

Reggaeblues wrote:The only drawback with this is time. If you find a good blend , like the Aberlour / Ardbeg described above(which I have to try!) I suggest putting some aside for a few weeks to let the whiskies marry.

Agreed. The Aberlour Ardbeg vatting, which I had a whole bottle's worth, definitely improved with age.

Maybe I specified this above, but to get more precise with the proportions, I had a bottle of a'bunadh full to the bottom of the label and filled it the rest of the way with Ardbeg 10. Can't remember which batch the a-bunadh was.

Re: Your Own Vatting/Blend

I have also tried this, with rather pleasing results, so I'd heartily recommend the experimentation to fellow posters. So sincere thanks to those contributing to the thread which gave me the idea

I had around 20cl left from a 'cheap and cheerful' Signatory Vintage Islay Cask Strength (5yo, 58.4%) that I was struggling to finish - I found it very young, feinty and pretty harsh (yet I liked the Ardbeg Very Young ).

So... to 20cl Sig Vintage Islay (5yo Caol Ila) I added around 10cl of Laphroaig QC and 5cl of Ardbeg Uigeadail and let it marry in a 35cl/half bottle for a week or so and voila.......... very nice and a huge improvement. It has picked up the smooth, sweet peat and wood influence of the QC and a hint of the deep sherried smokiness of the Oogy. A much more palateable and pleasant dram but still a fairly heavy peat-hit and less mono-dimensional.

To take this concept further I may even just keep topping this 35cl bottle up with CS Islay and similar and as such have a living islay vatting.